Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“It’ll affect me; people at the shows, fans, they’re all going to read that and nobody will want me playing.”
Scarlett’s face hardens, and she says in a stern voice, “Well, you’ll always be playing with me so they’ll have to get over it, or they’ll have to get over me, too. I won’t allow it. It will die down. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but it will and you’ll breathe freely again.”
Scarlett’s head whips around and we see a group of girls approaching us, phones out, squealing happily. She must have heard them calling out to her. She exhales and puts on her best smile, standing and signing her autograph and getting pictures with them. When they’re gone, she comes back and sits by me.
“Let’s get out of here or we’ll never get left alone.”
I nod and stand, but before we start walking, I turn to her. “Scar?”
“Yeah?”
“Malakai hates me.”
She shakes her head. “No, honey, he doesn’t. He’s just ... hurt. He feels let down that you didn’t tell him. He thinks you had someone else. But he will find out the truth, and he’ll come good.”
“I never meant to lie to him,” I admit. “Or any of you. I just ... I was so ashamed.”
Scarlett’s face softens. “Well, I don’t ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again. We love you, Amalie. All of us. You’re part of this. We’re a family. What you suffer, we suffer. Don’t let that man bring you down anymore, and don’t, under any circumstances, be ashamed. You have nothing to be ashamed about.”
“Thank you so much,” I whisper, meeting her eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She beams. “Ditto. We have a show on the weekend for the annual fair, get out there and show them what you’re made of and stuff everyone else. And if that man continues to harass you and tell lies, I’ll deal with him.”
I laugh, so grateful to her in this moment.
“I guess I had better go face the music, but which song do I start with?”
She smiles, and then her eyes grow serious. “Deal with Caiden first. Then Malakai.”
Right.
Two birds.
One stone.
-11-
NOW – AMALIE
“He doesn’t want to see you.”
Caiden’s mother stands at the door, staring at me, eyes icy. I usually shrink away from their scalding stare but decide that for right now, I’m going to hold my ground. For once. I’m tired of being pushed around by this family. Accident or not, that article was a blatant lie and should have never happened. I may have deserved a lot, but I did not deserve that.
And it’s time they stopped.
For good.
“I don’t care if he wants to see me or not,” I tell her, my voice harder than it’s ever been in her presence. “If he doesn’t want me to seek legal advice for the lies he told, then he’ll see me and he will speak to me.”
Her face flashes with a moment of surprise before she says, “There is nothing you can do legally when he simply told the truth.”
“You and I both know that wasn’t the truth. I can take my part in the accident, but I will not be made out to be a cheating, selfish woman. We aren’t together. We haven’t been since the accident. You and I both know this. So does he. I’m doing nothing wrong. He’s the one who wants me out of his life, and yet I’m still here, every damned day, copping his abuse. And yours.”
“Be very careful, Amalie.”
“Let me in, or I’ll contact a lawyer and take matters further. What he published was slander.”
She shakes her head. “Go right ahead, there is no proof that you weren’t together, none whatsoever. He had every right to express his anger, and you owe it to him to take it.”
I’m done.
So done.
I’m tired of being pushed around by these people. For being made to live with guilt every single day of my life. I may never forgive myself for the accident, but that’s my choice to make, and my burden to live with. As for the rest, I do not deserve it. Scarlett was right, Caiden had his part in that accident, too. And deep down, he knows it.
I’m tired of being bullied.
By this family.
By Caiden.
By Treyton.
By my own mother.
No more.
“I owe him nothing,” I snap, raising my voice for the first time. It’s been so long since I’ve done it, it feels foreign to me, but it also feels incredibly good. Freeing even. “He took the wheel that day in the car, he jerked it causing us to go off the road. He knows it. You just don’t because you were happy to let me take all of the blame. I’ve been by his side since, even when he has done nothing but abuse me and treat me unfairly. I’m done with it. I will not live with his lies being slung all over town. I’m a human being, and I too deserve some damned respect!”